Local News

Kids log about 500 hours of reading

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
08/03/2014 04:00:00 PM MDT

Fort Morgan Children's Librarian Katie Holmburg reads "The Bubble Factory" by Tomie dePaola to the youngest group of 2014 Fort Morgan Summer Reading Program participants, the pre-K, preschool and kindergartners, in July on the steps of Dahms-Talton Band Shell in City Park. Bubbles were one of the science-related things they learned about during the program. (Nicole Meininger / Courtesy photo)

Learning how to blow bubbles inside of bubbles without popping the original one was one of the lesson at the 2014 Summer Reading Program for the third-graders through fifth-graders, as this boy did in July at the Fort Morgan Children's Library. (Nicole Meininger / Courtesy photo)

The teens were not the only ones learning about science at the 2014 Fort Morgan Summer Reading Program.

Kids of all ages got a chance to learn about things like the formation of bubbles, why airplanes can fly and lots more.

Bubbles were a big part of what the kids studied this summer, whether it was just blowing them and watching them pop, or finding out how to blow bubbles within other bubbles.

For airplanes, the kids got to find out how to build basic dart paper airplanes, and then even hold races with those paper airplanes.

At one point, Children's Librarian Katie Holmburg challenged the kids to "build a better airplane" than her model.

But the kids also could listen to and do a lot of reading over the course of the summer.

The third- through fifth-graders had a lot of fun blowing bubbles of all kinds and seeing how many they could connect or blow within each other during this year's Summer Reading Program. (Nicole Meininger / Courtesy photo)

With the little ones, Holmburg read books to them, even venturing outside for this on nice days and sitting on the steps in the shade at the Dahms-Talton Band Shell.

All ages did crafts projects, with many of them tied in to the science lessons that were part of the "Fizz, Boom, Read!" theme this summer.

Holmburg's combined total for how much reading all the Summer Reading Program participants did was right around 500 hours.

On Thursday, she announced that overall total at the closing event, as well as the names of the kids who each read more than 1,000 minutes: Aeris Anderson, Ellie Burgess, Mason Burgess, Javier Rodriguez, Kenya Rodriguez, Josiah Williams and Risa Williams.

At least one of these kids alone read 3,000 minutes (50 hours), Holmburg said, adding that this child was 8 years old.

These big-time summer readers got some fabulous prizes at the closing event Thursday, including certificates for food and bowling at Morgan Lanes.

Everyone received at least one small prize, and the number of prizes climbed depending on how much the kids read.

Holmburg said she could not believe how quickly the summer seemed to have passed by.

Fort Morgan Children's Librarian Katie Holmburg shows the first- and second-grade Summer Reading Program participants how to make a dart paper airplane. They later raced their paper airplanes and even tried to make better planes than Holmburg's, which was her challenge to the kids. (Nicole Meininger / Courtesy photo)

It was her first time as Fort Morgan Library & Museum's children's librarian running the Summer Reading Program, which she said had been a wonderful experience.

She had help from Library Assistant Nicole Meininger, who organized the Teen Summer Reading Program, and together they made the programs a fun success for the kids and their parents.

At the closing program, many of the kids also said they had fun with the events and all the reading this summer.

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